In a vehicle provided with a rearward-hinged type front hood in the front part of the vehicle body, the rear end part of the front hood is pivotally supported on the vehicle body by a pair of right and left hood hinges. The hood hinge is made up of a hinge base fixed to the top end surface of a dash side front panel and a hinge arm, one end of which is fixed to the rear end part of the front hood and the other end of which is pivotally connected to the hinge base.
When a shock load is applied to the vehicle from the front, the front hood is pushed to the vehicle rear. Since a windshield glass is arranged in rear of the front hood, in order to prevent contact of the front hood with the windshield glass, the rearward movement of the front hood must be regulated so as to be within a fixed range.
On the other hand, from the viewpoint of protecting pedestrians, when a pedestrian is struck on the front hood, the front hood must deform properly to absorb the shock. Furthermore, the hood hinge pivotally supporting the front hood is sometimes formed so as to be relatively weak in such a manner as to be capable of being deformed easily.
As a means for regulating the rearward movement of the front hood, JP2007-137083A has disclosed a structure such that an engagement part (a hook and a receiving part) is formed on the hinge arm and the hinge base of the hood hinge so that when a shock is applied to the front hood from the front, the engagement of this engagement part regulates the rearward movement of the front hood.
In the above-described structure, unfortunately, in order to ensure the operation of the engagement part at the time of vehicle collision, a sufficiently large engagement part must be provided on the hood hinge. Even in this case, for example, when a shock load is applied to the vehicle from the slantwise front direction, the engagement part does not operate reliably, so that there is a fear that the rearward movement of the front hood is not controlled.